Saturday, April 19, 2014

Show-offs

Spent some of this morning watching the exhilarating, death-defying aerobatics of courting lapwings, on Chapel fell in Weardale.

When the males are displaying to the females they hurl themselves around the sky with deep, powerful strokes of their broad wings, whose primary feathers make a distinctive humming sound as they're forced through the air. Then they tumble towards earth, twisting and turning until ....

..... they pull out of their dive at the last possible moment, skimming the grass as they climb for another display, all the while producing their distinctive 'pee-wit' squeaky calls.

4 comments:

The last photo realy shows of the colour of the bird. I grew up thinking the Lapwing was actually called " Pee-wit" as that's what my dad calls them and still dose, mind you he calls me Jane, and it's Amanda ...!

Cabinet of Curiosities

Welcome to my natural history blog from the North East of England.

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